Grape vines take root in modern China

Great Wall Red Wine, $3.75. Found everywhere and selling to westerners on its novelty name. The wine tasted oxidized. But it's a "must-try" to say you have sampled Chinese wine.

Tibetan Dry Naked Barley Red Wine, $4.50. Caramel, dried figs and plums on a wine that deserved a second sip.

Lijiang Red, $3. Some licorice notes in this local wine what tasted like a cross between sherry and firewater.

Beer is the chosen beverage of most males. Some 90 per cent of the wine consumed domestically in China last year however was red. Drinking it has become a status symbol.

Some 80 per cent of vineyards produce red wine. It's the country's women who are driving a slowly growing white-wine market.

The Chinese have undoubtedly noted wine is a key export in some countries and within a decade I believe we will be sipping good Chinese wine.

That's just as well. The standard of living there is rising quickly and a more affluent population will no doubt seek a share of our favourite wines.